Cette obscure clarté qui tombes des étoiles
Duration: 4 minutes
Instrumentation: flute and CD
Performed by: Kathryn Cernauskas
Commissioned through the Canadian Music Centre's “New Music for Young Musicians” project, cette obscure clarté qui tombe des étoiles was written for intermediate flutist and tape. As a young music student, I enjoyed playing music from the Baroque and Classic periods, although I derived the most pleasure from improvising at the piano. I played the strings with my fingers, putting pencils and erasers inside the piano, and making scraping sounds with things I found in my basement when no one else was around. Years later, while attending university, I learned that this was called preparing a piano, and was first achieved through the genius of John Cage in New York (25 years prior to my work as an 8 year-old in suburban Vancouver). For Cage, his explorations were made in order to make the piano sound like a gamelan, or a collection of percussion instruments. For me, it was because I liked making the sounds that I was usually told were errors, or unrefined uses of instruments, and this approach to instrumental colour has continued to develop throughout my career. Now, through luck, magic, chance, and will, I spend my days inventing, working with, and shaping these colourful and beautiful sounds - in a deeper, more organized way than before, but still in contact with the sense of exploration I felt while improvising as a kid. cette obscure clarté qui tombe des étoiles was written for similarly adventurous young flutists who experiment by playing some of the unusual sounds available on their instruments, and who will enjoy the ways I extend the sound of the flute and the many electronic sounds in the music they will play.